Monday 10 March 2014

How multitasking can kill you

Ever since women got behind the wheel, every one knows they're not really good at it.
As a woman I get honked at, yelled at and once spit-on (thank god the window was closed!) almost daily.
I don’t see myself as a bad driver but more of a sloppy one. I closely observed what it is that makes women bad drivers and found out that we just don’t get it.
We follow the rules, stick to the lanes and even give a signal when taking a right in 500 meters (therefore misleading the person right behind us).
We simply turn our rear-view mirror into a compact one, the CD player into a karaoke machine and the ashtray to a piggy bank. Most of us don’t know what car parts are for, drive on an empty tank hoping it will get us home and think that if we switch off the car during driving, the car will explode.
All of these can be considered normal, but what's not normal is the scary truth about women and multi-tasking behind the wheel.
As recent statistics have shown that car crashes kill more young women than heart disease, HIV and diabetes combined being a top cause of death for women under the age of 35!! Everyone thinks of themselves as excellent drivers but when multi-tasking is involved, these Schumacher skills just disappear.
Of course we all we shouldn’t DUI (drive under the influence, aka drunk-driving) but what we don’t know is that we shouldn't DWT (driving while we text).
DWT has caused many accidents up to the extent that 18 states in the U.S have legally banned it.
Based on researches it has been proven that reading or typing messages while driving makes you eight times more likely to have an accident and is actually worse than driving with an 0.8 blood alcohol level (which by the way is legally drunk).
The research also claims that taking calls while driving is risky as it quadruples your risk of a crash (even if it's hands-free) because people process 50% less visual information (break lights, pedestrians, stop signs and signals) while on the phone.
So what you should do is ignore any SMS, BBIM or phone call you get while driving, if its important pull-over, you never know when this 2 minute stop will save your life. Now that you've been warned of texting/ talking on the phone, put down that burger or that extremely hot cup of coffee!! As if driving wasn’t hard enough, imagine driving with a sloppy cheese burger in your hand.
As usual girls try to keep their cars clean and so try as much as possible NOT to touch the steering wheel or gear-box while they eat and so invent what I like to call 'wrist driving'.
'Wrist driving' is used mainly when you're holding a burger, counting money or just came out of the nail salon and have nail polish on.
But to be fair, it's much better than 'no-hands driving' when you're hands are cold and tucked below your legs or when you're trying to tie your hair back or when you're adjusting your glasses.
I'm surprised we actually come out of all of this alive , adjust all that needs to be adjusted on your drive-way BEFORE you start the car, have lunch BEFORE you get into your car and please put away your phone , this call can't be more important to you than your own life. Next time remember, drive safely.

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